There’s nothing worse than turning up to a flight, especially one on a low cost carrier, and having excess baggage. Often excess baggage costs can add up to more than you paid for your flight, which is a nasty surprise and a sure way to ruin a good holiday. If you’re like me then you probably like to collect gifts and little things from your travels, which can really weigh you down. There are a few ways you can deal with excess baggage – some you might have not yet considered, here are some suggestions:
Use World Baggage:
Instead of paying the crazy fees to check in oversized or large luggage with your airline carrier, why not use World Baggage? You can check on their site how much things will approximately cost, so there are no hidden charges. You can choose the method of carriage, which will affect both the speed and the cost. If you’re not in a rush, you can choose a longer method and save some serious coin. If you’re short on time and need your stuff with you as soon as possible, you can try the door to door method. I spent way too much on carting a giant suitcase around the world with me when I moved to the Czech Republic… it’s not something I would do again.
Photo Credit: Bradley Gordon
Wear All Your Clothes:
This is not a practical suggestion for long trips or if you’re planning to move a part of your house across the globe, but if you’ve just come from a weekend trip away and your bag is too heavy you can simply wear all your clothes. It might be ridiculously, slightly uncomfortable and a bit cheeky – but almost anything’s game in a bid to save money. I think it’s a bit odd that airlines charge more for luggage and not for people’s varying weight. But I guess it was cause a bit of an uproar if airlines started charging by a passenger’s weight.
Ask Someone Else to Carry It:
To be honest, this might not go down too well. It reminds me of a time that the host mother I was staying with in the Czech Republic forgot she had a pocket knife in her handbag. It was an expensive one and she’d already checked in her bag so she asked some random people to check it into their luggage. No one was keen. So she asked the flight attendants if any of them would carry it and were met with the same answer. Obviously this was an unplanned accident, but my guess is unless you know someone personally. they’re probably not going to be interested in carrying your stuff for you, especially with airport security being how it is. If you’re traveling in a big group and your baggage is over, you should ask one of the people in your group if they have spare space as it could save you quite a lot.
Transporting luggage around the world doesn’t have to be a nightmare with a little forward planning.
